Andrew Bailey stepping down as Missouri attorney general for job in Trump administration
Missouri will need a new attorney general for the third time in six years as Andrew Bailey announced on Monday that he plans to step down to become co-deputy director of the FBI.
'My life has been defined by a call to service, and I am once again answering that call, this time at the national level,' Bailey said in a news release announcing his departure. 'But wherever I am called, Missouri is and always will be home.'
Bailey was appointed attorney general in 2022 after Eric Schmitt was elected to the U.S. Senate. Schmitt got the job in 2018, replacing another Republican who won a Senate seat, Josh Hawley.
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe will name his replacement at 10 a.m. Tuesday. The new attorney general will then serve until Bailey's current term expires in 2028. Bailey said his last day in office will be Sept. 8.
Bailey had never run for public office before former Missouri Gov. Mike Parson tapped him to replace Schmitt in 2022. At the time, he was serving as Parson's general counsel. He previously worked as an assistant prosecuting attorney in Warren County and as an assistant attorney general.
Weeks after being elected to full four-year term last year, Bailey was vying to be President Donald Trump's new attorney general or FBI director. He will now join the FBI as it faces a torrent of criticism from across the political spectrum over the Trump administration's refusal to release government files on the late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
His short stint as Missouri's attorney general was largely defined by confrontation — lawsuits against the federal government, investigations of health care providers and public fights with other statewide elected Republicans.
Bailey's most high-profile cases since becoming attorney general included twice suing to block federal student loan forgiveness and carrying forward an unsuccessful lawsuit alleging the Biden administration was colluding with social media companies to censor conservative speech.
His office is also involved in four different lawsuits regarding medical records of transgender children — part of his effort to end gender-affirming care in Missouri.
The attorney general's office under Bailey helped force St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner out of office and is pursuing felony charges against St. Louis County Executive Sam Page.
Bailey has also been unflinchingly loyal to Trump, including publicly endorsing the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and unsuccessfully attempting to intervene in the criminal case against him in New York that resulted in 34 felony convictions.
But Bailey's tenure as attorney general has also been marked by accusations of corruption, incompetence and grandstanding, with his critics alleging he's more interested in scoring appearances on Fox News than effectively running the sprawling office or winning in the courtroom.
Among the many lawsuits Bailey inherited from his predecessor was a case against Missouri school districts that implemented mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. After a judge ruled in support of the school boards, Bailey's office missed its deadline to appeal.
Last summer, he narrowly avoided being questioned under oath about his contact with a defendant in his own case against Jackson County. One of Bailey's deputies lost his license because of the meetings, according to a filing from the county's attorneys.
Bailey was also the focus of a formal complaint about the behavior of his office after he falsely blamed the Hazelwood School District's diversity, equity and inclusion program for the off-campus assault of a student.
He's also faced criticism over his contributions to his campaign.
Bailey recused himself from a gambling lawsuit filed against the Missouri State Highway Patrol after PACs connected to the lobbyist of the companies suing the state wrote checks to the committee supporting his campaign.
He raised eyebrows after accepting $50,000 in campaign donations from Doe Run, a St. Louis-based company being sued by thousands of Peruvians over allegations of lead smelter poisoning in their mining town in the Andes. A few months before the donation, Bailey filed a brief asking the federal court to move the lawsuit out of Missouri.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Solve the daily Crossword
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
8 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Gavin Newsom Just Dragged Bed Bath & Beyond For Refusing To Open Stores In California, And People Are Absolutely Loving The Pettiness
One word to describe Gavin Newsom these days is — unfiltered. The Governor of California and his team have been openly mocking Republicans from his Press Office X account... Related: And rage-baiting MAGA with culture war posts... Well, Newsom's latest target is the retail chain Bed Bath & Beyond, which is officially making a comeback after filing for bankruptcy and closing all 360 stores in 2023. The retail chain's executive chairman, Marcus Lemonis, recently announced that the franchise will not open any new stores in the state of California. Related: Lemonis wrote in a recent X post that the decision wasn't about politics, but rather "reality," citing "higher taxes, higher fees, and higher wages" in California as the main issues. "California's system makes it nearly impossible for businesses to succeed, and I won't put our company, our employees, or our customers in that position," Lemonis wrote. Related: Well, Newsom's response is going viral. People are loving it in the replies. Related: "I just cackled I'm sorry," this person commented. "lmfaooooo idgaf just make him president already. We deserve to go down as a nation with a hot sassy bitch from California," another person wrote. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below. Also in In the News: Also in In the News: Also in In the News:
Fox News
8 minutes ago
- Fox News
The redistricting effort in California is more about whether or not the Constitution and fairness to the people will be maintained, says Rep. Darrell Issa
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., weighs in on Gov. Gavin Newsom's redistricting efforts and their fairness to Californians on 'The Story.'
USA Today
10 minutes ago
- USA Today
Trump's GOP on verge of big Texas win, but battle for power is only starting: 5 takeaways
Trump's Texas fight is aimed at giving the GOP an advantage in 2026 and a lame-duck president more power while in office. Democrats have other plans. A partisan battle in Texas over who holds power in Washington during the final two years of President Donald Trump's second term has unfurled into a nationwide debate drawing in top political figures as voters brace for another divisive election in 2026. The Lone Star State's GOP lawmakers are poised to send new congressional maps to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Aug. 21 that Trump and his allies hope will give them a strategic advantage in holding onto their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. But the fight in Austin has spread beyond the state's borders and created significant uncertainty about who will be in position to govern during the second half of the Trump administration and after the next race for the White House. 'Game on,' New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wrote Aug. 20 in a social media post. She is one of several Democratic leaders considering their own steps like the Texas Republicans to re-draw congressional district borders inside their state. Here are five takeaways on the fast-spreading redistricting wars: Republicans have the upper hand if the redistricting war expands. States typically redo their congressional boundaries for voters every decade, specifically in the two years that follow a new census. But Trump has encouraged redistricting to happen ahead of the 2026 U.S. House elections. His motivation? The tendency of the party in the White House to lose seats in the U.S. House during the congressional elections that happen between presidential elections. Recent examples include the 1994, 2010, 2018 and 2022 political cycles. Trump and the GOP are hoping to break that trend or increase their 219-212 U.S. House majority through states with Republican legislatures that can draw congressional maps. By contrast, many Democratic states have passed laws and constitutional amendments creating independent commissions to draw their congressional district maps instead of politicians. That's part of why states such as Missouri and Indiana have discussed redistricting for Republican advantage, but the Democratic stronghold of Washington has ruled it out completely. Additionally, Ohio needs to re-draw its own congressional maps under a constitutionally-mandated process that would happen regardless of today's political climate, and Florida has created a special committee to re-draw congressional maps. Taken together, that means that there are three high-population states actively pursuing Republican seats, and so far California is the only major state likely to redistrict for Democrats ahead of 2026. A legal fight over the new Texas maps is brewing What's happening this week in Texas won't be the final say on whether the maps are permanent. That's for the courts to decide, though fights like this can take years to work their way through the system. Both Democrats and Republicans previewed their legal arguments during the Texas legislature's Aug. 20 House floor debate that ended in the House's approval of the Republican-favored new maps. Democratic lawmakers accused their GOP colleagues of 'packing' Hispanic voters into some districts and 'cracking' or 'diluting' their representation. Those are all key terms referring to practices that opponents have used when challenging maps in the past. They also asked Republicans whether they drew maps based on voters' Hispanic ethnicity since race-based gerrymandering is still illegal. Texas state Rep. Todd Hunter, the Republican author of the bill that changes the maps, explained that an outside law firm drew the maps, not members of the legislature or their in-house staff. He said he asked the firm to re-draw the maps to improve his party's 'political performance' in the state, using a term that he said was backed up by a recently decided federal court case. Hunter used the term repeatedly during hours of questioning by Democrats. Americans still don't like gerrymandering Americans haven't historically liked it when politicians draw maps in their favor, but they may support the practice when it benefits the party they agree with. A nationwide Reuters/Ipsos poll that ran from Aug. 13 to 18 found that a small majority of respondents thought the ongoing redistricting plans were 'bad for democracy,' and Democrats were more likely to think this than Republicans. A poll by the market research firm YouGov that ran Aug. 1 to 4 found that three-quarters of adults saw it as a 'major problem' when states draw maps to intentionally favor one party, and another one-fifth saw it as a 'minor problem.' These proportions, too, higher among Democrats and lower among Republicans. But in California, where Democratic lawmakers wants voters to decide in a Nov. 4 special election whether to redraw their own maps in favor of Democrats, a majority of voters support the initiative. The proposal has support from 57% of California voters, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom's own polling, as reported by Axios, including overwhelming support from Democrats and overwhelming opposition from Republicans. A Politico-UC Berkeley Citrin Center poll of nationwide voters that ran through Aug. 20 found about one-third of respondents said Democrats in California should 'fight back' with their own maps. That broke down to almost two-thirds of Democrats, one-third of independents, and about one-tenth of Republicans. New Democrats are getting their time in the spotlight Americans are seeing new faces emerge from the Democratic Party as they make national headlines fighting back against often better-known Texas Republicans. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, widely seen as a frontrunner for his party's presidential nomination in 2028, is one of them. His decision to go toe-to-toe with Texas and leverage his position in the only state with more congressional seats than the Lone Star State has meant an introduction to Americans all over the country and a national spotlight on his ideas. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, one of the names floated for vice president in 2024, got his name out there when he hosted Texas Democrats who fled their state for nearly two weeks. But the ongoing fight has also highlighted what anti-gerrymandering advocates have called an unfair map tilted toward Democrats in Illinois. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who says she wants to retaliate against Texas, is also gaining some attention. Another new face is Texas Rep. Nicole Collier of Fort Worth, who slept on the floor of the legislature. Texas Republican leaders have been requiring the Democratic lawmakers who broke quorum earlier this month to sign permission slips to leave the chamber and have a state police escort follow them around 24 hours a day to make sure they don't attempt to leave the state again. 'Today is not the end,' Collier said after the House passed the bill Aug. 20. 'It is the beginning, the start of a new Democratic party where we won't back down. … And we will push and push and push until we take over this country.' Barack Obama, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are all involved Trump kicked off the firestorm when he called on Texas lawmakers to redraw the maps and provide five more Republican-leaning congressional districts. Now he's going toe-to-toe with Democratic Party standard bearers who have come into the fight. Former President Barack Obama posted on X that the attempt to re-draw districts in Texas was an 'assault on democracy,' and praised Texas Democrats. Now he's endorsed Newsom's plan to redistrict California's congressional maps in retaliation. Former Vice President Kamala Harris also called Collier while she stayed in the legislature: 'You really are inspiring so many people, and I just want you to know that you are among those who history will reveal to have been heroes of this moment. So you just stay strong and do what you are doing.' Harris ruled out a run for governor of her home state of California in 2026, leaving Americans to wonder whether she'll run for president in 2028. Contributing: Kathryn Palmer, USA TODAY
